Understand that I almost posted this on Friday, April 1st, but I figured that anyone reading it would think it was a joke.
Maybe to prove that nothing succeeds like excess, SRAM has announced that they have made front derailleurs obsolete by introducing a 12-speed cassette - with a massive 50 tooth large cog.
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| Dubbed the XX1 Eagle, the 12-cog cassette goes from 10 to 50 teeth for a freakin' 500% gear range with a single chainring. (photo from SRAM) |
To build anticipation for the announcement, SRAM even posted a "eulogy" video for front derailleurs (at least for mountain bikes):
No plans so far to make a road version (or so they say), but who's to say somebody won't? And having so much range with a cassette is supposed to eliminate the need for multiple chainrings and a front derailleur, but if 12 is good, wouldn't 24 (or 36?) be even better?? How are bike and component makers supposed to convince current riders to "trade up" without new innovations like more speeds?
I'm sure that in the same way Campy's 11-speed cassettes practically forced Shimano and SRAM to offer their own 11-speed systems, and those 11-speed road systems were quickly adapted for mountain bikes, I figure it's only a matter of time before we're seeing road groups with 12 speed cassettes and double chainring cranks. Get ready for it.
It's inevitable.
Next up: "all mountain" "performance" IGH hubs + these things to take the gear range to 10000000% - electronic shifting. all without that horrible FD thing that ruined cycling for so many decades
ReplyDeleteNo front changer? We can now look forward to dropped chains and chain suck. Solve one "problem" and create a hundred others...
ReplyDeleteThat problem has pretty much been solved by narrow-wide chainrings. While I don't use them myself, several hardcore mountain bikers I know are running 1x11 setups and they have zero problems with drops and chain suck.
DeleteI wonder what the rear der. is going to look like?
ReplyDeleteAlso, how thin are chains getting, now?
"If you are my age or older, you might remember your first twelve-speed bike."
ReplyDeleteHey, I remember my first ten-speed bike. And my first three-speed.
While you were busy with this post, Shimano was launching an even bigger 13X cassette (sorry, I couldn't find it in english):
ReplyDeletehttp://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com.co/2016/04/you-knew-it-was-gonna-happen-12-speed.html
By the way, why I can't ever publish a comment on your articles? Hope this one finally goes in!
It worked! And yes, I'll have to look for that 13x cassette now.
DeleteMy bike has a 5 x 2.
ReplyDeleteI use (maybe) 4 of those.
2x11 is plenty for the road. MTB not so much.
ReplyDeleteWould I be labeled as a retrogrouch if I said that 2 x 6 is plenty for the road? Oh, wait . . .
DeleteI have been assuming that Shimano's Dyna-Sys rejiggering of cable pull was in anticipation of the next step in the arms race, just as their free hub jump-started an earlier one. I will admit to never having been crazy about trimming, but having at least two speeds with perfect chain line is nothing to sneeze at, let alone the kind of shifting short cuts they allow. But really, isn't the assumption underlying speed inflation that it's all about a perfect cadence? And isn't that exclusively a racing concern? My idea of a good time is working with Sheldon Brown's calculator to determine my own perfect 5 speed ratios for an IGH, then dividing that range or a slightly greater one into 6 or 7. My 1x8 is almost always satisfactory, and my 2x9 is an embarrassment of riches. Maybe this is in part about dummy-proofing for transpo applications down the road.
ReplyDeletei can't help thinking that the 12 speed cassette is just an elaborate hoax...
ReplyDeleteThe Law of Diminishing Returns begins to apply.
Diminishing returns started after eight. Eight was perfect. But so were freewheels, in which case 7 worked just fine and 6 was perfectly adequate. Ten is just dumb.
DeleteAs someone, who used to race, and was constantly changing freewheels to match courses, it is nice with my 10 speed cassettes on my modern bikes to never need to change them for a course. My 13 x 26 has every gear I can conceive as needed for the majority of courses I typically ride.
Deletecertainly, the advantage of 9 and 10-speed cassettes is that they don't make you choose between "close ratio" or "wide range" -- you can get both. I do feel 6 or 7 in back is plenty for me though. I even feel ok with 5 in most circumstances.
DeleteSram makes a living off doctors and lawyers having more money than brains.
ReplyDeleteWholesale on the Eagle chains is somewhere around $60, which means your average retail pricing will be north of $80, to well north of $100 in "whatever the market will bear" shops...
Don't get me started on how much the cassettes cost, I simply get cranky.
@MendonCycleSmith,: We ought not get grumpy about the high cost of new technology when it IS brand new to the market.
DeleteAffluent buyers after all are the ones who will be funding much the development costs, while the lower-tier "copy" (X9, XT or whatever) gruppo is readied for future mass production in an even more-developed form! That's always the way it works, so hats off to SRAM (in this case) and hats off to those buyers who will have the pleasure of showing off their all-new toys.
We shouldn't have to wait much more than a year or so for much-more-affordable versions to begin appearing, and then perhaps most of us will have a shot at the ever-more reliable and refined mass-produced 12s gruppos.
I am able to handle hilly riding at speed while friction-shifting a 13-24t five-speed freewheel and 36/52t chainset.
With modern bikes though, I appreciate how the 10s cassette finally gave me my 12-25t with single-tooth gear changes up through 17t, something that even 9s cassettes couldn't quite muster.
A 12-28t 11s cassette does that one better, but oddly Shimano only sells the 12-28t cassette at the Dura-Ace level, for really big bucks.
But 11-25t 11s with a compact chainset gives virtually the same effect while in the big ring, but makes for a precipitous loss of chain speed when one finally has to dump down to the little 34t ring.
I would most love the 11-25t 11s cassette with a 50-39t chainset, but Shimano stopped offering that chainring selection in the late 1970's.